Cyril Dabydeen
Cyril Dabydeen (born 1945) is a Canadian poet and fiction writer. Life Youth and education Dabydeen was born in the Canje, Guyana, a locality that also produced his contemporaries Arnold Itwaru and Jan Shinebourne. He grew up in a sugar plantation with the sense of Indian indenture rooted in his family background (his parents were humble folk, and he grew up with his mother who worked as a seamstress, and with a grandmother, in an extended family of aunt, nieces, nephews). He is a cousin of U.K. writer David Dabydeen.Cyril Dabydeen biography. Voice of Guyana International, January 17, 2007. He taught school from 1961 to 1970, beginning as a pupil teacher (a British educational tradition; e.g., D.H. Lawrence also worked as a pupil teacher); he received formal teacher-training during this period. He began writing in the early 1960s. His debut chapbook collection, Poems in Recession, was published in 1972. In 1970 he left Guyana for Canada to attend university; he obtained a B.A. degree in English (with first-class honours) at Lakehead University, an M.A. degree (his thesis was on American poet Sylvia Plath), and an M.P.A. degree at Queen's University. In his early years in Canada he worked in a variety of summer jobs to pay his way through university, perhaps most importantly as a tree-planter in the Canadian forests around Lake Superior, and lived in bush camps with Native Canadians, sometimes 6 weeks at a time. It was this experience that perhaps is part of the process of the drawing of imaginative connections between Guyana and Canada, both with large "unpeopled" hinterlands and surviving native peoples. Career He was literary juror for Canada's Governor General's Award for poetry in 2000 and 2006, for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature (University of Oklahoma) in 2000, and for the James Lignon Price Competition (the American Poets University & College Poetry Prize Program) via St. Lawrence University, New York. He is a regular book critic for World Literature Today (University of Oklahoma). He has worked for many years in human rights and race relations in Canada (with the federal and municipal governments, travelling to over 30 towns and cities advancing these issues). He currently teaches in the Department of English, University of Ottawa. His work has appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies, including the Oxford, Penguin and Heinemann Books of Caribbean Verse, Critical Quarterly (UK), Kunapipi (Australia), Wasafiri (UK), Planet: The Welsh Internationalist (UK), Exempla (W. Germany), Chandrabhaga (India), World Literature Today (US), The Literary Review (US), The Fiddlehead, The Canadian Forum, PRISM international, The Dalhousie Review, The Antigonish Review, Canadian Literature, Canadian Fiction Magazine, The University of Windsor Review, The Queen's Quarterly, ARIEL, Quarry, Grain, Khavya Bharati '' (India), ''Wascana Review, Short Story (University of Texas), Journal of South Asian Literature(USA), Broken Pencil, Descant, Books in Canada, Kyk-over-al, The Globe and Mail, etc. He has done over 300 readings — including in 40 colleges and universities — from his books across Canada, the US, UK and Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean (Cuba, Guadeloupe, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Guyana). He has read on stage with some of Canada's important writers, including Rohinton Mistry, Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke, and M.G. Vassanji. To date he has written over 17 books consisting of poetry, short stories and novels. He is a former member of the League of Canadian Poets (he served on the Membership and International Affairs subcommitees) and PEN International is op-ed essays have appeared in the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The Ottawa Citizen, and the Washington Times Review. Writing Academic papers have been given on Dabydeen's work in Canada, US, UK, France, Spain, Australia, Brazil, India, and the Caribbean. A book-length study on his work was published by Prof. Jameela Begum, Dept. of English, University of Kerala, India. Critics have described him as: "a gifted Canadian poet" (Toronto Star); the "Pablo Neruda of Ottawa" (Patricia Morley, Ottawa Citizen); "one of the most confident & accomplished voices of the Caribbean diaspora" (Kamau Brathwaite, New York University); "a fine craftsman and a wonderful weaver of images" (Kwame Dawes, World Literature Today, University of Oklahoma); "an amazing writer" (Douglas Glover); and that his reading style has "Stravinsky's rhythms" (The Ottawa Citizen). He has been referred to as "Canada's most popular post-colonial writer" (Danforth Review). Recognition In Guyana, Dabydeen won the Sandbach Parker Gold Medal for poetry (1964) and the first A.J. Seymour Lyric Poetry Prize (1967). Dabydeen was the Poet Laureate of the City of Ottawa from 1984 to 1987.Cyril Dabydeen, Poet Laureate Map of Canada, Owen Sound and North Gray Union Public Library, Web, July 6, 2012. A finalist 4 times for Canada's Archibald Lampman Award for poetry, as well as for the Guyana Prize, Cyril Dabydeen eventually won the top Guyana Prize for Fiction in 2007 for his novel Drums of My Flesh.Paquet, Sandra Pouchet. Guyana Prize for Literature: Judge's report. Stabroek News. August 26, 2007. Drums of My Flesh was also nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award. His writing has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Journey Prize, and he has twice won the Okanagan Fiction Prize. He received the City of Ottawa’s 1st award for Writing and Publishing, and achieved a Certificate of Merit, Government of Canada (1988), for his contribution to the arts. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence from the Guyana Awards Council (Canada) in 2010. He is included in the Canadian Who's Who. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence from the Guyana Awards Council (Canada), May 29, 2010, in Toronto. Publications Poetry *''Poems in Recession''. Georgetown, Guyana: Sheik Sadeek, 1972. *''Distances''. Fredericton, NB: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1977. *''Goatsong''. Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 1977. *''Heart’s Frame: Poems''. Cornwall, ON: Vesta, 1979. *''This Planet Earth''. Ottawa: Borealis Press, 1979. *''River in Me''. Toronto: League of Canadian Poets, 1980? *''Elephants Make Good Stepladders''. London, ON: Third Eye, 1982. *''Islands Lovelier than a Vision''. Leeds, UK: Peepal Tree, 1986. *''Coastland: New and selected poems, 1973-1987''. Oakville, ON, & New York: Mosaic Press, 1989. *''Stoning the Wind''. Toronto: TSAR, 1994. *''Born in Amazonia''. Oakville, ON, & Buffalo, NY: Mosaic Press, 1995. *''Discussing Columbus''. Leeds, UK: Peepal Tree, 1997. *''Hemisphere of Love''. Toronto: TSAR, 2003. *''Imaginary Origins: New and selected poems''. Leeds, UK: Peepal Tree, 2004. *''Uncharted Heart''. Ottawa: Borealis Press, 2008. *''Unanimous Night''. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 2009. Novels *''The Wizard Swami''. Leeds, UK: Peepal Tree, 1989. *''Dark Swirl''. Leeds, UK: Peepal Tree, 1989. *''Drums of My Flesh: A novel''. Toronto: TSAR, 2005. Short fiction *''Still Close to the Island''. Ottawa: Commoner's, 1980. *''To Monkey Jungle''. London< ON: Third Eye, 1988. *''Jogging in Havana''. Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 1992. *''Berbice Crossing, and other stories''. Leeds, UK: Peepal Tree, 1996. *''Black Jesus, and other stories''. Toronto: TSAR, 1996. *''My Brahmin Days, and other stories''. Toronto: TSAR, 2000. *''North of the Equator: Stories''. Vancouver: Porcepic Books / Beach Holme, 2001; Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2001. *''Play a Song Somebody: New and selected stories''. Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 2004. *''Short Stories''. Caribbean Press, 2011. *''My Multi-Ethnic Friends, and other stories''. Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2013. Non-fiction *''Managing Diversity through Municipal Action''. Ottawa: Federation of Canadian Municipalities, 1995? Juvenile *''Sometimes Hard'' (young adult novel). Kingston, Jamaics: Longman, 1994. Anthologized *''Six Ottawa Poets''. Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 1990. Edited *''A Shapely Fire: Changing the literary landscape''. Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 1987. *''Another Way to Dance: Asian-Canadian poetry''. Stratford, ON: Williams-Wallace, 1990. *''Another Way to Dance: Contemporary Asian poetry from Canada and the United States''. Toronto, ON: TSAR Publications, 1996. *''Beyond Sangre Grande: Caribbean writing today''. Toronto: TSAR, 2012. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Cyril Dadydeen, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Apr. 3, 2017. See also *List of Canadian poets *List of Caribbean poets References External links ;Poems *"Streets," Poet Laureate Map of Canada. *Four Poems *Poems, Kunapipi ;Books 8Cyril Dabydeen at Amazon.com ;About *[Cyril Dabydeen author profile, Peepal Tree Press *Cyril Dabydeen at Asian Heritage in Canada * Cyril Dabydeen at the University of Ottawa Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:Canadian poets Category:Guyanese emigrants to Canada Category:Canadian literary critics Category:Queen's University alumni Category:University of Ottawa faculty Category:Guyanese novelists Category:Guyanese poets Category:Lakehead University alumni Category:20th-century poets Category:21st-century poets Category:Caribbean poets Category:English-language poets Category:Canadian short story writers Category:Canadian novelists Category:Poets Category:Canadian poets of Asian descent